Stephen King Offers an Update on His Series Adaptation of LISEY'S STORY
J.J. Abrams and Stephen King are currently developing a series adaptation of King’s novel Lisey’s Story for Apple TV+. I loved the story that this book told and I’m excited to see it brought to life. King has actually written the scripts for all eight episodes of the series and it will include new things that weren’t in the book.
The story follows a character named Lisey Landon, and it’s set two years after her husband's death. Lisey “decides it's time to go through his office to clear out his papers. Scott Landon was a bestselling novelist and Lisey has been besieged by people wanting to buy any of his unpublished work but she is determined not to let that happen. As she begins the process of cleaning, she is contacted by an unsavory character who claims that if she does not turn over the papers, he will make her suffer the consequences. Finding strength she did not know she had and never used during their marriage, Lisey refuses, and true to his word, 'Zack McCool' begins to stalk her. Lisey begins to remember strange events from her marriage that she had suppressed and finds clues that may help save her life."
The concept of the story was inspired by King’s experience when he was involved in a serious accident in June 1999. The idea for the novel sprang from a sudden realization he had when he came home from the hospital and saw that all of his belongings were in boxes. Because of that, he saw a vision of what his studio would look like after his death.
The show has a great cast that includes Julianne Moore, Dane DeHaan, Joan Allen, Clive Owen, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. King recently offered an update on the project during an interview with The Washington Post. He explained:
"I’m now working with a very talented director named Pablo Larraín on a limited series for Apple Plus called 'Lisey’s Story.’ He’s got a lot of ideas that don’t depart from the throughline of the story but are beautiful visual things, with a lot of energy involved. It’s like having more depth perception, because I’m like one eye and he’s the other eye. … If you’re going to really succeed in this business, get people you know are talented and then say, 'Okay, I’m going to step back. I’m not going to be looking over your shoulder and fiddling in your stuff. Go ahead and do the stuff you’re good at doing.'”
DeHaan previously discussed the series and shared that new story material is being written for the show. He said:
“I think it’s gonna be really rad, we were doing really cool things, the set felt really good. The director’s awesome, the DP is really cool. I really hope we get to finish soon because it feels like we’re making something really wild and crazy and scary and awesome, I’m really excited about it.
“He’s actually written a few scenes based on our conversations. It’s been really fun and this character, I think, will be one to remember. He’s a weird dude, and I don’t want to give too much away, but we’ve had a lot of fun taking what Stephen had in the book and bringing it to modern-day, but also in a really off-putting, strange and disgusting kind of way.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this series turns out. I’m hoping for the best!